Fort, Rukn Followers Convicted Of Conspiracy

November 25, 1987|By Liz Sly.

El Rukn leader Jeff Fort, accused of trying to lead his street gang from its South Side headquarters into a world of international terrorism, was convicted Tuesday along with four of his followers on federal conspiracy charges.

It was the first time that U.S. citizens have been brought to trial and found guilty on terrorism charges, according to John Podliska, an assistant U.S. attorney and one of the prosecutors.

Jurors spent 47 1/2 hours deliberating the evidence over six tense days before announcing their verdict at 1:30 p.m. The jury of six men and six women had been sequestered for more than a month.

Fort was accused of masterminding a conspiracy from his prison cell in Texas, ordering gang members to offer their services as terrorists to Libya in return for $2.5 million. He was found guilty of all 49 counts in the indictment and now faces more than two centuries in prison.

Although convictions in the past have had little impact on the gang, prosecutors said they hope the days of the Rukns are numbered.

Of the other four, Reico Cranshaw and Leon McAnderson, who visited Libya and Panama in an effort to collect the money, each were convicted on 35 of 49 counts. Alan Knox, who purchased a deactivated antitank rocket from an FBI agent, was found guilty on 23 of 49 counts. Roosevelt Hawkins, who drove the car in which the rocket was transported, was found guilty of 4 of the 6 counts with which he was charged. U.S. District Court Judge Charles Norgle scheduled sentencing for Dec. 29.

Ringed by U.S. marshals, the gang members betrayed no emotion as the verdicts were read. None of the other Rukn members who had packed the courtroom for most of the testimony was there to witness what Podliska described as ``the end for Fort and the El Rukns.``

Fort could be sentenced to 260 years in prison and fined up to $12.25 million. In spite of his notoriety, it is the first major conviction against him. Fort would have been eligible next year for parole on the drug sentence for which he is imprisoned.

McAnderson and Cranshaw face up to 195 years each, Knox 130 and Hawkins 25.

``Jeff Fort and his plague upon this community over a 20-year period has finally come to an end,`` Podliska said after the verdict.

Susan Bogart, also an assistant U.S. attorney, said prosecutors will seek to make sure that Fort is never again able to control the Rukns from prison, by restricting his access to the telephone.

U.S. Atty. Anton Valukas described the verdict as ``a blow against terrorism.``

``One of the things we do as law enforcers is protect the public against terrorism, which is endemic in Europe but not here,`` Valukas said.

Podliska praised the jurors as the ``real heroes`` of the case. ``They had the courage to convict and the honesty to base their decision solely on the evidence,`` Podliska said.

The time it took jurors to reach a verdict had prompted speculation that they were having difficulty reaching a decision. But the jury foreman, Gene Corley, a suburban engineer, said jurors simply took seriously their duty to consider all the evidence. ``Otherwise, we would have done a disservice to the defendants and the entire system,`` he said.

``Anyone who read the judge`s instructions would have realized that we had to discuss each of the items in detail,`` he said. ``With the complexity of the individual counts and the number of defendants, I think the time we took speaks for itself.``

Corley said the jurors did not know that they had been sequestered on Oct. 20 because four jurors, later dismissed, had received threatening phone calls. ``But we had a pretty good guess,`` he said.

The threats, coupled with the shooting the same day of two relatives of the prosecution`s star witness, former gang member Tramell Davis, resulted in unprecedented security inside the Dirksen Federal Building and outside the courtroom. Each night, the jurors were whisked away under heavy police guard to an undisclosed hotel.

Defense lawyers said that they were ``disappointed`` with the verdict and that they planned to appeal.

Fort`s lawyer, Terry Gillespie, said that ``all the defendants are disappointed.``

Kent Brody, who represents Knox, said the Rukns would base their appeal on the extraneous evidence related to drugs that was introduced at the trial. It became apparent during the trial that the Rukns were prepared to go to any lengths to get money from Libya, but it also was clear that the would-be- terrorists were ill-qualified to carry out the services they offered Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.